Thanks for joining us on our special coverage of the historic summit between North Korea and the U.S. in Singapore.
It's noon, June 12th here in Korea and I'm Lee Ji-yoon in Seoul.
Just hours ago,.. at 10 a.m. Korea time... we witnessed a new moment in history... as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump met face-to-face for the very first time.
This meeting marked the first ever meeting between a sitting North Korean leader and a U.S. president... during which the two sides came together with hopes of reaching an agreement on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Many had been hoping that today's summit and negotiations would pave the way for lasting peace on the Korean peninsula.... as the North seeks physical security and economic assurances in exchange for dismantling its nuclear capabilities.
Just the fact that the summit is taking place today is remarkable considering that up until now, the relationship between North Korea and the U.S. was marked by missile tests and heated rhetoric amid heightened tensions as the two leaders even traded threats of war.
And before we dig deeper into what may come out of today's summit... let's first give you a brief look at how they met at the Capella Hotel resort on Sentosa Island.
Both leaders first emerged at 9:03 a.m. local time,.... walking along a red carpet from separate sides of a staging location at the resort... to shake hands with a backdrop of two countries' flags.
The two leaders then posed for pictures.... before speaking briefly in a corridor before entering their meeting room and both men were smiling as they shook hands again with two interpreters at their sides.
The two spoke alone for about 40 minutes with just their interpreters on their sides,... before their respective advisers joined them for expanded talks at 9:55 a.m. local time.... which was 10:55 a.m. Korea time.
We don't know as to when the talks might officially conclude...as no time has been announced for that.